Tick Pop

Island vets not worried about tick populations

Ryan Quigley

Journal Pioneer

Prince Edward Island veterinarians should not be worried about Tick population growth this year more than any other, said Atlantic Veterinarian College associate professor Barbara Horney.

Recently Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have seen growth in the area and population where ticks are habiting.

Blacklegged ticks (also known as deer ticks), most common for carrying Lyme disease, have been the main concern and people have been urged to check their pets and themselves for ticks to remove them after walks in wooded areas.

Ticks usually inhabit humid places such as grassy and wooded areas. They feed off the blood of living mammals, birds or reptiles and amphibians.

Horney said that as far as she knows, ticks haven’t sustained an ecosystem here or laid any eggs on P.E.I.

“We’ve never seen anything but an adult on P.E.I. that we know of,” said Horney. “The assumption is that it’s migrating birds that are dropping the adults off.”

Horney said one reason they believe the ticks aren’t lying eggs on the Island is because their preferred host, the white tailed deer, isn’t native to the province.

“Now that doesn’t mean they can’t use another small mammal like a fox or a coyote or some other dog,” she said. “It might be some environment things too.”

Horney said there have been no comprehensive studies on tick populations done either.

“Nobody’s really looked extensively so I can’t say there aren’t any endemic populations but at this point we haven’t identified any.”

She said if someone should find a tick it can be brought to the Atlantic Veterinary College. They identify the tick in the diagnostics lab for free and then send it to Winnipeg for testing on Lyme disease.

“We know that 10 to 20 per cent, sometimes a little higher, of the ticks we get submitted from P.E.I. carry Borrelia which is the Lyme agent.”

Horney said even though there is not any large population issues here, people should stick be checking their pets and selves after being out in a wooded area.

“We know you never have to leave P.E.I. and a dog or a human could still pick up Lyme disease here,” she said. “Is it important to know whether the ticks are actually reproducing, lying eggs and having larval forms here? It might be but I think people need to be cautious anyway.”

Heather Morrison, Chief Health officer for the department of Health and Wellness, said no one had received Lyme disease after being bitten by a tick on P.E.I.

“There have been a total of five cases in the last 15 years of people diagnosed with Lyme disease on P.E.I. but all of them had received their tick bites outside the province.”

Morrison said the department sends out information to physicians on the Island on how to remove the ticks.

“You don’t want to squeeze the head of it, you want to take it off very carefully,” she said. “There’s usually some blood work that is done if they are concerned it’s Lyme disease as well as some antibiotics that are given.”